9.30.2005

Not much again the past two days - some small touch-ups on drawings and some planning. I did one cool thing - a cut-up and reassambled small drawing that points the way to resolving some stubborn ones.

This crazy schedule is over tomorrow so I'll be able to start kicking ass again then. It's been a frustrating two weeks.

9.27.2005

Got a little work done this past weekend - some family schedules are still interfering with work-time. The plan for this week is to finalize the framed pieces so I can order the frames next week - that deadline may slip.

I've also been playing around with ideas for the poster-invite. No word from the gallery if this is actually going to happen, but I have a few mock-ups to show them if its a go. I'm also considering doing a 4-part street-art campaign locally and a special website - more on that later.

Since Second Street is a non-profit they try to get sponsors for each show and since I'm "emerging" or whatever it's been a little hard to gther that support. I did get a couple generous folks on board this past weekend so thanks to them.

Tonight, if possible, more tweaking pencils and collages. Later this week I may have another gallery meeting about the invite. After this week the crazy family schedule will be over and I can start my sprint to the end.

9.24.2005

SPX (Small Press Expo) is this weekend in Bethesda. I encourage all my art-loving peeps to go see it if you're in the DC area - there's a lot of great stuff there - zines, mini-comics etc. Shawn at Size Matters is reporting from the scene. I wish I could be there...

9.22.2005

The meeting with Leah Stoddard, the Gallery Director, went well. She liked what I had finished and was enthusiastic about what I was trying with the big stuff and the sculpture. We get along well and from experience in other places I know that that's a big plus.

The show will keep its original name "True Defenders of the Craft" - I'll write more about that title later. For the announcement she wants to do a foldable poster! We'll have that all figured out next week. I'll have a week to install and I'll get a key to the gallery so I can do it at night - I'll have some helpers too. In a couple weeks I'll bring some of the sculptures by the gallery to see how they hold up on the pedastals in the space.

My plan now is a week and a half of finalizing all the work that needs frames so I can order them. Then more on the big monster and the little sculptures.

9.21.2005

Yesterday and today I've been getting ready for the Gallery Director's visit this afternoon. I made a pretty good sculpture last night, and put up a lot of the small drawings and collages in a big grid so we can see them the way I want to hang them.Still no final title, and my time has been hampered by family work schedules.

9.19.2005

Didn't get to work much this weekend - wife, Violet and I went to DC for an opening at a little space that my friend has curated at Boundless Yoga. The show looked pretty good, though I wish I had put all small work in. A fun little thing to go see and I'm glad to help an old pal start off this space. Big thanks to all who came, especially JTK + BL, AMW + JM, CR and family, LH and DJ. Super thanks to CNV for lending us his home to sleep at, and the TH and GS for bagels on Sunday.

Seeing the work up helps me to figure out a few things about the Second Street show. I need to get the big drawings to adhere to the backing board better. A few people liked the smaller work in groups. I need to make sure I'm better rested before my opening here because I was a little frantic at this thing.

So no movement here - except the big paper fell off the wall again and crinkled more. Now I'm definately going to replace the pepr, but I'll play around on this one for a few more days. One comment this weekend was that some folks wanted the pencil drawings to have perfect smudge- and crinkle-free paper, which is tough, almost impossible with the way I work. For the big one I do want to keep it as pristine as I can though.

Wife works nights this week and next so this is going to be a crazy studio schedule for me. On Wednesday I meet with the gallery Director here in the studio, so I'll be preparing for that today and tomorrow.

Last night I started the big drawing. I drew a big telephone pole, but it wasn't working at all. Drawing big is very different that when you can see the whole thing at once. I realized I need to sketch out with a light pencil before getting in too deep.

So I then started layering on paper and chunks of large drawings I had done earlier this year. Now there's a big tree behind a fence with a ghost on it. I also added a green bush-shape. I think this one will work, or if not another will by the time of the show. What I'm starting to figure out is I'm better at drawing and then chopping up and reassembling than I am at just drawing sometimes, especially at a large scale.

Yesterday I spoke to Leah at the gallery and we're going to meet next week to pick work and decide about the announcement card. Still thinking of names for the show...

9.15.2005

This Saturday September 17 I'm in a group show called "Centered in the City" curated by Truly Herbert and Berre Burch at the new Boundless Art Space at Boundless Yoga in D.C. There's a party Saturday night and the show runs until October 17. Here's the info:

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"Centered in the City" at Boundless Art Space

Work by Warren Craghead, Novie Trump, Robert Lindsay, and Teresa Castracane

9.14.2005

Monday night I worked on the big piece, but it seemed bogged down. Yesterday I got a HUGE piece of paper - 7 feet tall! - at the art store and hung it up, but have been too chicken to draw on it yet.

Last night I chopped up an old drawing and reassembled it with other things to make a new collage that looks promising. This morning I started some drawing-sculptures, but so far they are a little sickly. The plan is to give them a few days and then next week decide whether to cut bait. If any come to life I'll post a pic here.

I need to come up with a name for the show - right now it's called "True Defenders of the Craft" (which is a title of a collage and a line I stole from Mike Watt), but I think that's not right for the show. I have until Friday to come up with a name...

9.13.2005

Along with the many artists auctioning off work to help Hurricane Katrina victims, JP Coovert at One Percent Press is doing a project like mine - he'll draw anything you want for a $20 donation. They also plan to collect all the drawings into a book to make more money for the victims. Go drawers go!

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At James Wagner's blog he's posting drawings of the artwork in the Greater New York Exhibit at PS1 in New York. Apparently they won't let people take photos, so he's encouraging folks to draw the art there and send it to him. I drew a couple based on their (very limited) website. Send him drawings!

9.12.2005

I worked Saturday for a few hours during the day and a couple more late that night, and then more late last night. Lately I'm mostly working after wife and baby are sleeping. This morning I got an hour in before work.

I've been grappling with the huge collage-drawing I'm trying to do. The plan is to mess with it for another week and then decide if it's worth more time of if I should shelve it until after the show.

I was thinking of it in two ways - as a scaled-up version of a smaller drawing, or as an all-over composed hodge podge - as if I'd attached hundreds of smaller works. I've dug out some things I've drawn over the past few years and have been cutting and taping to see how I can get this thing moving.

The basic problem is that when the scale goes up, the lines don't, so things start to get lost and not hold together like they do at smaller sizes. The rules start shifting. The other issue is how to connect everything with glue and tape and not have it buckle and warp.

After a lot of battle I think I'm finding some ways to make it work, but I'm still unconvinced that it'll make it into the show. I'm realizing a lot of my work depends on open space...

On a side note, a good friend helped me by taking several drawings and collages to DC for a show they will be in that opens this weekend. All the smaller works will be in the Second Street show, and probably the bigger drawings too, so the DC show will be a little preview.

9.11.2005

Since nailing down a date for the show I've been working like crazy. Through July the plan was to start on the series of smaller pencils and collages. Through August I wanted to finalize most of the large pencil drawings and continue with the smaller works. By September 1 I had a couple dozen strong large pencil drawings, about 100 small pencils and 50 or so small collages - but many of the smaller works need to be worked on some more. I also met with Leah at the gallery to talk about the work and other financial things.

The plan now is this - I have enough work for the show already done, so I think I can go a little crazy for a while. I'm not sure I can pull off a huge collage and the drawing-sculptures, so I plan to try to do them until around Sept 15, then have a studio visit with Leah. At that point I either bail on those or keep going. From Sept 15 until Oct 1 I finish everything that has to be framed, then order all my frames. In October I frame everything while continuing to make small drawings and collages (which will be hung on pins - no frames!), and I'll keep working on the huge collages and the scuptures (again, no frames). The last week of October I deliver the work and collapse.

9.10.2005

Last spring when I found out the date of the show at Second Street, I was glad but again, freaked out because in late June my wife and I were expecting our first kid. So I had to get to work right away.

Right now my works falls into three overlapping catagories - Drawings, Collages and Books. My initial plan was to show a bunch of drawings, a few collages and make a book especially for the show. After Violet arrived (three weeks early!), I dropped the book idea. It seemed like too much work for something most people would toss out anyway - I decided to concentrate on the white walls they were giving me...

My next plan involved hanging drawings and collages, but also doing a larger wall-drawing that would interact with the other work. While I think a large wall pencil drawing would be great for me to try, I realized this wasn't the show for it - I wouldn't have enough time to really do a great job and also keep everything else going.

My final plan is this: showing 8 - 12 large pencil drawings, 5 - 10 medium sized collages and a wall full of small pencil drawings and collages in a large grid. All of these I know I can pull off. As usual I've decided to push the envelope and add two other works - one really big BIG collage and a few drawing-sculptures. I'll post more about these later.

9.09.2005

I'm starting a new series here on DRAWER - a countdown to the opening of my first-ever solo show. I'll check in periodically and post about what I'm doing to get the show together and up and hopefully document how fun and frightening it'll be. The show opens November 4, 57 days from now (thus the post title) at Second Street Gallery here in Charlottesville.

Over the next few days or so I'll get you up to speed about what's happened so far, then I'll go day by day talking about what I'm up to.

First a little background. I moved to C'ville with my wife in June 2003. I set up a studio in my house and started scoping out the art scene here. Honestly, I didn't expect much - C'ville is small and known mostly for the University of Virginia. I was surprised at how much there is here though - a good University Museum, a city-run art center with studios and even an Austrailian Aborginal Art Museum. There are also quite a few smaller places to show, including a couple commercial galleries.

Second Street Gallery stood out to me - it's a very professional non-profit space showing regional, national and international artists. Leah Stoddard, the Director, has a great eye and great enthusiasm.

I sent a sheet of slides in the fall of 2003 to apply for a show, thinking I'd need to re-apply a few times and get to know folks around here before I had a shot at a show. At the time they had one larger room in the McGuffey Art Center.

I didnt hear back from them for a while - I figured no news was good news, and they had just moved to their current space, a larger place with a smaller back gallery. In the spring of 2004 I was thinking about calling them to see about my slides when Leah called me. She had held on to my slides, seen a drawing I had in an open group show at the McGuffey and wanted to have studio visit.

The visit went really well and Leah said she wanted to try to fit me in sometime in '04 or '05 - they had a lot more flexibility now that they had 2 galleries in their space. I was happy and freaked out - I had just seen a great Marcel Dzama show there, so showing there seeming like a really good move for me.

Through the rest of '04 I worked in the studio. This past spring Leah told me about where she fit me in the schedule - November 2005 in the back gallery.

9.02.2005

Following the lead of a bunch of other area artists, I'm starting a scheme to raise money for the victims of Katrina, similar to a thing I participated in last year to raise money for the Kerry campaign.

For a 25$ donation I will draw ANYTHING you want - name it, I'll draw it, or if you like I'll pick something. I'm a pretty good drawer. The drawing may include collage. Contact me via email. I'll do this project for one month, until October 2, and I'll post here what I send out.

As an added bonus I'll throw in a couple books I've made, and I'll put you on the postcard-drawing list.

And if my skilz don't tempt you, go here to see lots of other artists with great work donated for Hurricane relief.

9.01.2005

Following the lead of a bunch of other bloggers, I urge my tiny band of viewers to contribute what they can to relief for victims of Hurrican Katrina.

Lenny over at DCArtNews if auctioning off some great artwork to raise money.

Alexandra over at SolarizeThis has a great list of artists donating work to raise money, including Duane Keiser's postcard paintings, Matt Achhammer's photographs from New Orleans, James W. Bailey's Rough-Edge Photograph, Alexandra Silverthorne's Black & White Photographs and Samantha Wolov's Black & White Photographs. Keep checking her blog for links and more artists to be added.